


The Black Wood

by DragonBlue



Category: Goosebumps - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 12:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18623719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonBlue/pseuds/DragonBlue
Summary: A village lad finds more then he bargained for in the forest surrounding his home





	The Black Wood

**Author's Note:**

> I was going for a Goosebumps type feel here. small piece I did in college. I hope you enjoy.

When we were young, our parents always warned us from journeying into the Black Wood. It was the one place close to the village that only the bravest dared to enter and never alone. The tall rough-barked, black trees with long, skeletal branches reaching out seemed poised to strike at any who should disturb the stillness of their silent domain. Silent…until the night came. I still remember the first time I heard the sound. It was during the summer of my 17th birthday. It seemed like the wind at first, it would rise and fall and sigh with the night. Many would have simply dismissed it or ignored it and hoped it would go away. Of course, I was always too curious for my own good so I stayed up that first night until I heard it. Suddenly the sound began to grow louder and louder. As it did it changed into something that sounded less like a howling wind and more like the screeching of a cat when you trod on its tail. Under that sound there was another, a deep growling that seemed as if it might shake the trees to their roots or cause the whole forest and everything around it to fall to pieces in a great crescendo.

I knew I could not be the only one who had ever heard that sound and wondered at the identity of its owner. Unfortunately, after that night if I ever dared to ask others about it I would hear the same warnings I always had with no further clues as to what was going on in those woods. Eventually I decided that if I wanted to find out what was going on I would have to find it myself. After a year had passed I had gathered all the information I could about the forest, little as there was. My best friend Finch and I planned to slip away during the village fair and finally find the answer that we both had wondered about since childhood. We slipped away easy enough but as we stood at the edge of the dark trees a deep shiver ran down my spine. Every tree seemed to breathe and lean outward toward us both. I still remember that feeling clear as ever, the forest did not want us here. Finch felt it too I was sure but neither one of us wanted to appear frightened and lose face so we steeled our will and moved under the trees deep shadows. The dusk light gave the trees a surreal look, full of sharp angles and shifting blackness. Eventually we reached a ring of stones and trees screening a glade. As we peered through the leaves we heard a deep growl and the sound of heavy feet as something moved behind them. Suddenly the pacing stopped as whatever it was turned heavily in our direction. It seemed to inhale deeply. Then suddenly it roared out, the same sound from all those years ago. We both turned and bolted as fast as we could with it’s cries echoing in our ears.  
Since that day, neither I nor Finch have set foot in our old village, let alone dared to confront whatever is guarding the Black Wood.


End file.
